I went shooting yesterday and this is what I found. I loaded 90 grains of Triple 7 behind a 295 grain Powerbelt and shot 3 times WITHOUT cleaning between each shot. I got a group of about 2.75 inches for the 3 shots. I then tried 100 grains and did the same routine and got a group at about 1.5 inches for the 3 shots. I shot these shots at 50 yards. I then cleaned the barrel and tried a shot with 100 gains at 100 yards and hit 7/8" to the left of dead center. I then cleaned the barrel and fired at a gal. jug 100 yards away and hit it well. I then loaded another round, did not clean the barrel, and shot at and hit another gal. jug at 100 yards. I did not feel comfortable with trying to up the powder charge to say, 110 or even 105 grains. Can I go there or do I need to?

btw...I found a T/C manuel that I was given when I taught hunters safety...a .50 cal Hawken and a 370 maxi-ball...Max is 100 grains FF black powder....777 is about 15-20% stronger than bp...So you are actually over the published limit...

That is going to depend on the maker of the Hawkins. The term Hawkins does not in any manner refer to a single gun maker. While Thompson Center, CVA, Traditions, and numerous other companies all make "Hawkins," they are not alike in all things. Just as they may differ in the hardware, they very well vary in the barrel strength used.

Some custom Hawkins, I have read posts of 150 grains of loose powder. Other rifles are technically limited to 100 grain of loose powder and 85 grains of the super loose powders such as Triple Se7en or Black Mag3.

Normally I suggest you keep .50 caliber Hawkins 110 grains or less. Most of the rifles will come in between 80 grains and 100 grains. This of course is dependent on the type of projectile used. It sounds like you have a good load working up there...

__________________"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."

My book shows the max load is 110 grains of 2f powder for that rifle. My Hawkins shoots 90 grains of Goex 3f with a patched roundball and the accuracy is excellent. I use 4f as the pan prime. This would be a lethal load for about anything I would want to shoot...

__________________"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."

btw...I found a T/C manuel that I was given when I taught hunters safety...a .50 cal Hawken and a 370 maxi-ball...Max is 100 grains FF black powder....777 is about 15-20% stronger than bp...So you are actually over the published limit...

Except that he's shooting a 295-grain bullet, not a 370-grain one! Big difference......

I thought the recipie for max load on the older style slow twist rifels was 1 1/2 times bore diamiter , or 75 grains for a 50 cal ? . The manuel definately is what you want to go by .

I don't know where this idea came from, but 75 grains is on the light side for a .50 cal. of reasonable quality. The "rule of thumb" used bythe mountain men when loading REAL Hawken rifles was that the "standard" load was one-halfthe weight of the ball. So for a 180-grain round ball in the .50 it was 90 grains. "Double-charge" was twice that, the powder measure being filled and dumped into the barrel TWICE, for 180 grains. A real Hawken would stand such loads, and due to their slow-twist rifling, the point of impact vs the standard load did not change much, except of course at longer ranges where the trajectory was flatter due to the higher MV. When the Hawken was 'double-charged", it was referred to as "loaded fer b'ar", and the idea was to increase the killing power of the round ball for use on dangerous animals at close quarters.....

Of course, the Hawken rifles were made for and used with round balls,although it is possiblethat some Hawkens were shot withconical bullets of some sorttoward the end of the fur trade era. I'm not sure that there's any documented proof of this, however......